Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC lens now available for sale (Nikon and Canon mount)

Krakow, May 4th 2011. Delta company - the sole distributor of Samyang products for Europe announces that wide-angle Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC with Canon EF and Nikon AE mounts, has been released for sale today.
Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC is now available in two versions: with Canon EF and Nikon AE mount. The remaining models, i.e. Four-thirds, Pentax, Samsung NX and Sony Alfa are to be released at a later date.

Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC

Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC is an optically sophisticated bright (f/1.4) wide-angle lens with focal length of 35 mm. It was designed to work especially with full-frame sensor cameras, nevertheless it may be also used with cameras featuring APS-C/DX and Four-thirds sensors. The device's optical construction comes with two lenses with high refractive index (HR) limiting its weight and dimensions. One aspherical lens (AS) protecting against chromatic aberration was also used. High-quality multi-layer and anti-reflexive coatings (UMC) increase the contrast and allow to generate more natural colours. Samyang 35mm 1:1.4 AS UMC lens takes advantage of the so called "gliding lenses" allowing to maintain high image quality with minimum focusing distance. AE model, intended for Nikon DSLR cameras feature a microprocessor unit allowing to have full control over the exposure parameters and freely use i-TTL flash control technology. Data on focal length and available apertures is recorded in EXIF format.

Yea, quite good. Unless you look for top-grade lens this one works well. If you keep in mind price than only issue you can have is lack of autofocus. Other than this recent Samyang lenses are superb. But don’t buy their super-telephoto lenses – these sux worse than any 3rd party lenses around.

http://haroldellis4444@gmail.com Harold Ellis

depends…
you need to stop it down, so it performs like AI 35 f2

but you get kinda warranty maybe lol

alesh

It’s big and not cheap, because it’s full frame lens !

Bengkong

No AF. No AF. No AF. No AF.

http://www.bigelowphoto.com Rory

FYI, Samyang is sold everywhere. They are commonly relabled under the following names: Rokinon, Bower, Opteka, Vivitar, Falcon, and I think there’s one other that’s eluding me right now.

The 14mm is fantastic, but unfortunately suffers a bit of mustache distortion. The 85mm is a very solid lens. I’m curious to see this one. They are all made in Korea, IIRC.

http://bernarddimanche@gmail.com Duncan Dimanche

I was thinking about getting the canon 35mm 1.4 for my videos but this Samyang does look quite attrative. And for a full frame it’s not THAT expensive I think… I’d like to see how it performs

Keep them comming Samyang

A 24mm 1.4 would be nice as well

KT

If you are shooting primarily video, you cannot go wrong with this lens as lack of AF will not bother you. And if you have seen any videos made with the Rokinon/Samyang 14mm and 85mm, you would be convinced too.

Plus canon lenses’ prices have gone off the roof because of the earthquake, you will have to wait until at least July to get the price lower.

Geoff

The 85mm f/1.4 is a fantastic piece of work on full frame. Hope this lives up to the standard set by that lens.

Sam

Why no AF?

Timo

I dont see a market for this lens for Nikon users. Why would I buy the Samyang 35 1.4 if I can have a Sigma 30mm 1.4 for about the same price but with AF? Ok, when it comes to manual focus the Samyang might be easier to use, but other than that?

I don’t know…

spamdie

The Sigma 30mm/1.4 you speak of is for crop.

But still the amount they’re asking for for a Manual focus 1.4 lens in this day of age is kinda ridiculous.

It’s amazing that this lens beats the Nikon, Canon, and Sony optics in almost every way. It says quite a bit of the sad state of optical affairs at Nikon and Canon especially.

Anonymus Maximus

Well the manual lenses are squarely aimed at the serious video chaps. They have no use for a AF lens, as the focus is controlled by manual gear in the full rig.
There is even a dude who’s only job is, to handle the focus gear.

The Samyang is simply a cheaper alternative for the Zeiss who dominate the market so far.

In markets like Europe and US the Focus dude’s salary for two day shooting might be more than this lens. So they will continue to go for Zeiss because the difference in cost will be less than the catering.

But do not forget that there are many countries in the world where the price for this lens is one month salary for the focus dude. They will happily go for it.

You have also to take into consideration what the actual difference in sharpness and image quality is FOR VIDEO.
Might be not as much as for still pictures.

Sean

Just wanted to add that my experience with the 85mm f1.4 is really good except the lack of AF but I had a d5000 and even the nikon 85mm f1.8 which was more expensive would not have autofocus on the d5000 when d5k first came out. After doing a lot of research, I bought it and compared it to a 85mm f1.8 (rented). Needless to say, at this wide open, a few things a photographer would probably pursue is the bokeh and low light capability. I would say this f1.4 stopped down compared to the 1.8 has creamier bokeh (which I like, some people don’t like creamy). The infocused area was sharp so the only other aspect you want to be able to control is the Exposure factor which after using it for a couple of weeks, and just firing one test shot out first when needed, I was able to judge relatively easily what I want my shutter/iso combination to be at so that part was not an issue to me. Optical quality wise, I’d say the 85mm 1.4 samyang is just as good or better than the 85 1.8. I can’t compare to the 1.4 because I did not want to spend the money to rent one and also because the 1.4 is about 3x the price of a samyang and only advantage on a d5000 is the exposure compensation ability. So there you go, more reasons that one why one would get something without AF, because Nikon has not caught up on af-s for all lens yet and for the 85mm range, when and if they get caught up, is extremely expensive like th 85mm 1.4 af-s which cost about $2k US.
That said, I’ve been happy with my 35mm f1.8 af-s which cost about US$300 (that was when I sold the 85mm because I was a lazy focuser :P) Bokeh was definitely not as creamy as the samyang tho.

martijn

i know about one very interesting lens from samyang, you can set aperture not in stops, but you have full control. so you can set it to 2.1, 2.2 or 6,15 for that matter. great for video DSLR because its all manual and you can change the aperture by hand